So I've been trying to play around with zbrush's Fiber mesh feature with my current Corpse and Mayhem project, but I feel limited to only the hair on the head. Looking for a good excuse to dive in and learn this feature I was struck with the right character in mind.
FELICIA!!!!
Art by Pokkuti on deviantart
Good excuse for me to learn something new.
I'm going to take on this feline vixen with the proportions that capcom gave this iconic character, but I want to nudge it over towards the side of realism. I think its called Hyperrealism....I'm probably wrong, but anyways, besides learning Fiber Mesh. I want to experiment and see if there is a possibility that Fiber Mesh can somehow be taken over to game resolution.
This may probably yield nothing, but its fun to experiment:)
Replies
Seems like a good project can't wait to see how this goes and the final result.
regarding using fibermesh for low poly hair; It is definitely possible however in my tweaking I couldn't find a method that proved worth it- so far what I found was that by keeping the coverage modifier high while keeping the max fibers slider low will yield a low poly result- if you adjust the segments slider it will give your strands smoother contour. But, from what I found, it was a bit difficult to control compared to other methods.
Good luck!
@Dan!- sweet thank you for the info, this will give me a very good starting point!
As it happens I'm working on a Cammy model myself, please check it out if you're interested (link in my sig)
Can't wait!
I find it to be the most important aspect of a character, especially if you are sculpting an existing character. There is something that makes that character iconic and usually that character has very little detail but in an instant you can tell who it is based off the silhouette. In my personal experience, after the major silhouette, I like to look at secondary shilouette(or at least thats what I call it for my own sake). The secondary forms made up from anatomy, but still not going to crazy about anatomy
Felicia, for example, major part of her silhouette is that gigantic bushy set of hair on her head, after that her big paws, thick thighs, hour glass torso, etc...
Silhouette is a principal of art that we overlook sometimes, just wanted to to share my thoughts on it for my own sake as a refresher and for anyone else that needs a refresher
Fundementals = good art
Edit- I'll have a WIP up by tonight or tomorrow
Already without going into details you can get the feeling of the character, although I think the proportions can still be pushed more
One thing you should be very careful with though, if you're using the original sprites as reference, is to keep in mind that they are NOT drawn with a 1:1 pixel ratio in mind. Capcom's arcade hardware ran in 384x224 resolution which was then squashed to fit into the 4:3 frame of a regular monitor, so when viewed without that squashing, the sprites will be wider than intended. Making the sprites around 78% of their original width will give you the correct proportions. Here's a few visual aids:
Her part starts at 7:35 in the video and ends.
more
here
@jigsaw- That is very interesting about the pixel ratio, I would have never caught that, thank you; goes to show you that its important to make changes translating 2D to 3D, great find.
You're correct about the hair, for now its just a place holder. I might sculpt it out to try out Fiber mesh's target mesh feature. Same with the fur on her body, I'll contemplate it on the way.
@$!nz- I was checking out the anime earlier, because of its animation I will take those images with a grain of salt.
One thing I want to know is what is her eye color???
I always see blue or green.
You can find a nice collection of artwork that may or may not help you figure it out at Fighters Generation.
Make one blue and one green? or find a decent in between?
I think my other comment was incomplete, I should have had two youtube video their, oh well you know what your doing. :thumbup::poly136:
Nice catch as well jigsaw!
@$!nz- thank you
here is where I'm at, still very much WIP-ish. Gotta do some more blocking in and design decision. Also concentrating on the ears, not happy with it yet, so I'll keep chugging away at that.
I also masked in where her fur would be just to get a feel of the direction so far
Thank you Neox! the paint over is very helpful
It's funny to see her without the hair, the ears look about right, but without the hair they kind of overpower her face and make it a little difficult to truly judge the face. I can say though that I'm not really thrilled with it. Neox's paintover looks pretty, but still not really right IMO. I'm having a hard time explaining in words so I did a quick paintover of Neox's paintover :P
cliffs notes on my changes:
-overall made the face younger, rounder, less strongly defined features
-bigger eyes
-smaller nose
-pushed the shape of the mouth a bit
-higher/rounder eyebrows
Hope this helps!
All very great points, I'll have to make my next WIP post a good one
I was looking at the design and a few concepts and without that headband/hair?
You can't really tell what's going on (for me anyway) I figured it was fur but it looks like a headband of fur to me.:poly142:
Not for nothing but I can't get this face out of my head, It's so sexy.:poly124:
Another option is to cover her entirely in fur, with just the masked bits being white.
Also, I think a shorter, rounder face would suit her. It's both more in line with the Japanese ideal of cute, and fitting for a cat girl.
Where to begin....My freelance work kept me idle for almost 2 weeks rendering X(
This prompted me that its time to buy a new pc, which should arrive shortly(can't wait).
Besides that, Hurricane Sandy came strolling along and knocked out my power.
I'm one of the lucky ones though, power came on earlier this week for me, but many are still without power . After I get caught up, I'll bring the updates for Felicia and Corpse(my other thread)
Happy sculpting everybody!
What I've learned so far....
1)The Fiber parameters before accepting them are simple enough, but work out in a give or take kinda way. One parameter will be linked with another, so a lot of playing around in there.
2)This one was getting me angry for a while until I noticed there is an option for it. There are Fiber modifiers for the Fiber brushes, one of which dictates the collision tolerance between the fiber and the next closest subtool. Its set to 50 by default which IMO is retarded. So depending on the scale of your model in zbrush, you're gonna want to knock that slider down.
3)GroomToss brush seems to be the best bet for making broad strokes with long hair.
Right now Felicia looks like she fought with a blow dryer and lost, next I gotta play around more with grooming and making those big clumps of hair that she has.
atm, everything is rough including polypaint
the 80ies called tina turner wants her hair back
It's not a bad thing what your doing but I would think the fiber mesh is more for realistic designs and I don't see how that would work out with this design unless your aiming for realism otherwise continue.
Though I have to agree with the others that sculpting her hairy bits would be better, either way you can sort of do both if you rather not part with the fiber mesh version.
Glad to see some updates no matter the time-frame.
cheers.